Molly goes to CCACA...

Clayton Keyes,  CCACA Lecture.

     Clayton Keyes makes figurative ceramic pieces. He mostly works with the male body that interacts with each other or animals. Keyes creates work around themes like relationships and emotional narratives. His work tells stories, stories that most everyone can find related to their lives.  In his lecture he mentioned that most his figure seem to depict how resilient we are as humans.

    Keyes ‘s work is based his life experiences. “Contextually, my work stems from my own life growing up gay and the experiences that struggle presented me with. My efforts to hide my sexuality meant that any exploration of the human, and specifically male forms were limited. And so I studied the figure by drawing it secretly. As a result of those years of self-censorship, I find myself needing to evoke feelings of suppression through my sculpture. Consequently at times my work has been somewhat unapologetically forward in form and theme” Says Keyes. Like I do he thinks about how humans interact with their environment. There was a particular piece of his that stood out to me. It was a life size man who has killed and collected a bag of frogs but the sculpture had caught him in a contemplative position. He was holding a frog with an arrow he had just shot through it. The look on the face is one that is realizing that human and nature are connected.  That piece really struck me.
      In is CCACA lecture as an audience we also caught a glimpse as to how he works. Keyes primarily uses slabs, and uses clay like soldate.  He builds his tall figures in sections. To make sure the walls of his work are consistent, he tends to push out shapes from the slabs rather than working additively. He works fairly fast to avoid cracking in the clay and uneven drying.

     Clayton Keyes currently works at University of Nevada Reno, and will soon start a new teaching job in Salt Lake City.  He completes his BFA at University of Oklahoma, and then went on to obtain is MFA from University of Tulsa. 

"Parasite"

Molly Allen

Cone 3 stoneware, found wood, acrylic paint

2013

In this piece I was thinking about relationships that could not be placed. I want the viewer to assume that this piece is underwater, which speaking to an ongoing concept of mine, water being the subconscious. I wanted to figure feel a little unsettling but also playful.

"Cohere, Unite and Listen"

Molly Allen

Cone 3 and 06 Stoneware, string, found wood, glass, acrylic paint

2013

In this piece I was speaking about how we are all connected, and I was thinking about at what point does a human become animal and what are the boundaries that separate us. We all have generate 6-9 feet of electromagnetic impulses and I aim to capture the feeling of what it mean to be close to someone else or bathing in their energy.

Dance of Childhood

Margret Keelan

2010


Keelan's work is so strong because I has so much integrity and tricks the viewer into questioning what the material is. It also is very unsettling and speaks to past.

Oppisite

Erika Sanada

2013

Self Portrait of Sorts.

Shadqe Delgato

Undergraduate

2013

This was an undergraduate, and I enjoyed this piece so much because of its surface decoration it was perfect for the piece and really enhanced it. I am also attracted to the colors and how they blend.

The Swing

Amber Aguire

2013

There is a sense of play and gesture in this work that I am very attracted to, Aguire is also thinking of how to not use a pedestal and display creatively. I get the sense that she questions using the rabbit figure as I do, and that is evident in her surface. It looks that at any time it 

could fall off and a new form could emerge.

I admire this work for so many reasons, it looks so realist and is technically perfect. But there is still a meaning and thee is so much emotion in this piece as well as her other one. They are seamless.

Esther Shimazu

Color Ox

2011

Ceramic


Esther Shimazu's work is very interesting she make large, naked, bald women that seem to be almost embody the word jolly and they are very fleshly and i am attracted to her surface treatment and her style is so consistent.